If Heaven Exists...

Do you think it's White-majority?

I think it's a melting pot of good people. To assume otherwise is to explicitly accept an ethnocentric view of Heaven, which as we all know, was not the message of the 12,000 people from each of the 12 tribes of Israel references by Jesus. There was no most-favored tribe of Israel.

Exactly how racist people get into Heaven, therefore, is not apparent. You must lose your hate. Consider, that the New Testament reveals God's explicit command: Love.

And if Heaven is a melting pot of good people, why shouldn't America be that shining example of Heaven? It is utterly ridiculous and naive for people to fear a loss of the White majority. Or put another way, if you can get along with anyone regardless of race, wouldn't you like to have that on your resume when St. Peter greets you at the Gates of Heaven?

I can tell you that the moment before I leave this corporeal world, I will forgive all and cleanse myself of any hate. I do not want that baggage.

RIP Senator John McCain

Why do we honor John McCain? Despite his politics, he was a better man than most of us. When we describe heroes, he is one.

He endured when others would have given up. While held as a POW in Vietnam, he chose to accept years of torture rather than seek the easy way out. Lesser men would have done or said anything to avoid additional years of torture.

"I went back to him three nights later. He asked again, 'Do you want to go home?' I told him 'No.' He wanted to know why, and I told him the reason. I said that Alvarez [first American captured] should go first, then enlisted men and that kind of stuff."
...
"We went through this routine and still I told him 'No' Three nights later we went through it all over again. On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1968, which happened to be the same day that my father took over as commander in chief of U. S. Forces in the Pacific, I was led into another quiz room. 

'The Rabbit' and "The Cat" were sitting there. I walked in and sat down, and 'The Rabbit' said, 'Our senior wants to know your final answer.' 

'My final answer is the same. It's "No."'

'That is your final answer?'

'That is my final answer.'

With this 'The Cat,' who was sitting there with a pile of papers in front of him and a pen in his hand, broke the pen in two. Ink spurted all over. He stood up, kicked the chair over behind him, and said, 'They taught you too well. They taught you too well'—in perfect English, I might add. He turned, went out and slammed the door, leaving 'The Rabbit' and me sitting there. 'The Rabbit' said 'Now, McCain, it will be very bad for you. Go back to your room.'"

Life shows us that it is far more difficult to admit one's errors to the public, let alone to oneself. Throughout his life, John McCain has never shied away from coming clean and taking responsibility for his errors in judgment.

"But the principal reason for invading Iraq, that Saddam had WMD, was wrong. The war, with its cost in lives and treasure and security, can't be judged as anything other than a mistake, a very serious one, and I have to accept my share of the blame for it. None of that was known, of course, that day on the Roosevelt, when I was firm in my convictions, and self-assured. Even if we had been right about Saddam's weapons program, I shouldn't have used the occasion to cheer the prospect of war. All wars are awful."

He is a man of great honor deserving to be remembered for his humility, strength, and earnestness.

Follow-Up to What We Need

The antihero -- the flawed protagonist to our villain -- that I had previously outlined in 2015 as the means to destroying Donald Drumpf, exists: Omarosa.

She's the person we love to hate. In most scenarios, she's actually the antagonist, but in the fight against Donald, she's the flawed protagonist who's willing to sully her own cred to the very end in order to achieve her own sense of justice.

For every tape and comment she unleashes, Donald is driven to an ever-deeper self-destructive act and boy has he spiraled out of control this week. He has reportedly sought to have Jeff Sessions arrest her, though it's not clear what criminal act she's committed.

Every time the WH hits her back, she releases another tape to highlight their lies and counters with a new revelation, triggering them into another public meltdown. While the media loathe to embrace her, her voice and message are being broadcast over all channels. 

Her power to trigger Donald makes her an important antihero that we need, even if we do not want her.

Silicon Valley is NOT Liberal

This is just a brief, quick note. One of the laziest generalizations out there is that Silicon Valley is liberal.

If you review their actions closely, they are most definitely not liberal. What they are, are Progressive Libertarians.

They embrace what could be considered a dualistic belief -- that is in constant tension -- that the government ought to be hands-off and that the government should support progressive policies. On climate change, for instance, Silicon Valley would like to see the government push society towards lower GHG emissions, an inherent conflict of beliefs.

If they were liberals, they would have long ago demanded regulations of all things and an economic policy that was much more cautionary than expansionary.

That is all.

What We Need, Not What We Want

A common microeconomic saying is that needs and wants are not the same. Likewise, in 2018 what we need in America is not the same as what we want. We may want civility and a higher level of dialog, but what we need is a nasty bullfighter who will tear apart Donald Drumpf.

I deeply respect our former FLOTUS - an incredible woman. Her message was the right one at that time and in the context she delivered it. But these are now critical times. And for our future and our children’s, we must have a fighter to end this dumpster fire of a presidency. https://t.co/wUEBVLM16o

— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) August 12, 2018

Back in December 2015, I noted that the way to stop Donald Drumpf was to find a self-sacrificing hero who would take up the cause of being a bullfighter going mano-a-mano with Donald. The presumption then was that the downside was the destruction of one's own cred in the process, eliminating any future political ambitions.

Come 2018 and Donald has plowed the trenches of the deepest abyss -- a place where the vilest, decrepit, evil humans live. This has eliminated the concerns of an anti-Donald bullfighter losing his/her cred; there is so much to attack with, there is no need to dip one's toes into the cesspool where Donald lives.

Out of anonymity came Michael Avenatti, a different type of champion in an anomalous time. First, he took up the cause of an adult film actress and showed how her rights and honor were no less important than anyone else's. Then, he took up the cause of immigrant children who had been illegally separated from their parents and stripped of their dignity. All the while, he has deliberately targeted Donald Drumpf for his incompetence, bad judgment, and criminal behavior.

He's challenged Donald's manhood, his competency, his intelligence, and his values. And Donald has been rendered impotent to fight back. People instinctively know that Avenatti is what we need, which is why so many people are leaking info to him and going to him for help.

We may want a Barack Obama but what we need is a Michael Avenatti.